Management of all aspects of dairy cattle farming should be refined and put in place
Check all types of sheds on the dairy farm early. Before severe convective weather arrives, carry out safety inspections of the rearing sheds. The person in charge of the cattle farm should organise personnel to conduct a detailed inspection of the cattle sheds, maternity pens, forage storage warehouses, feed storage warehouses, milking parlours, farm perimeter walls, offices and staff dormitories, and reinforce any problems found in a timely manner to prevent trouble before it happens. People and dairy cows housed in dangerous sheds should be relocated in a timely manner to strictly prevent casualties.
Earnestly carry out animal disease prevention and control. After severe convective weather causes disaster, it is often a period of frequent livestock and poultry disease outbreaks. Animal disease prevention and control work should be effectively strengthened, immunisation and disinfection and the harmless treatment of dead livestock and poultry should be carried out well, epidemic monitoring should be strengthened, emergency preparedness should be reinforced, and sudden outbreaks should be handled in a timely manner.
Make preparations for wind, hail and lightning protection, and strive to reduce losses to the lowest possible level.
Make preparations for coping with continuous rainy spells. During heavy rainfall, especially continuous rainy spells, dairy cows should be driven into sheds in a timely manner so that they avoid being hit by rainwater. Standing water in pens and exercise yards should be drained promptly to avoid dairy cows living in harsh environments and to create a comfortable environment for them.
Reasonably adjust the daily ration and increase the nutrient concentration of the daily ration. Appropriately increase some high-quality concentrates and feeds with good palatability and easy digestibility, and increase the proportion of protein, vitamins, minerals and other feeds in the daily ration according to feed intake, so as to raise the nutrient concentration of the daily ration. The daily ration fed should be small in volume, high in quality and easy to digest, and high-energy and high-protein feed should be appropriately increased.
Do a good job in preventing dairy cow mastitis. The rainy season is a season of high incidence of dairy cow mastitis, and the policy of giving priority to prevention and combining prevention with treatment should be implemented. First, dairy cows in milk should be monitored for subclinical mastitis so as to prevent and treat it early; second, the environment of the dairy farm and the hygiene of the cows' bodies should be improved to reduce sources of disease; third, the milking machinery should be overhauled and maintained well, and worn parts should be replaced in a timely manner to prevent mechanical damage to the cows' udders; fourth, technical training for milking personnel should be increased, and operations should be standardised strictly according to milking procedures; fifth, observe frequently, detect early, isolate early and treat early; for cows that already have mastitis, it is best to milk them by hand to prevent mechanical transmission and aggravation of the condition.
Do a good job in the production and processing of silage corn. In late August, the northern regions are prone to continuous heavy rain, which has a serious impact on corn production and processing. Each cattle farm should pay attention to weather forecasts. Organise manpower, processing machinery and production materials well, link up the harvesting and processing stages properly, step up the processing and production of corn silage, and pay attention to chopping short, compacting, sealing and rainproofing.
Strengthen the cleaning and disinfection of pens. During the rainy season, pens should be cleaned in a timely manner even more to ensure that too much manure and urine does not accumulate in the pens and to keep the pens relatively clean and dry, so as to avoid moisture and accumulated manure and urine in the pens contaminating the udders and inducing mastitis. In addition, because of the pouring rain, dairy cows cannot go out to the exercise yard, so disinfection of the pens should be increased to create a good living environment for the dairy cows.